Page 39 of Black Star

Chapter Nine

He looked just like she’d remembered. Shiny black hair fell over one eye in unruly curls. She didn’t even try to resist the urge to gently brush it aside. It was as silky as she’d remembered, and her fingers trembled. Masculine black brows slashed across his forehead over his cobalt blue eyes. Dark lashes fluttered at her as he seemed to try to focus blurry eyes on her. Chiseled cheekbones and full lips gave him that exotic look she’d always loved about him.

He was her beloved. Just as she’d last seen him.

Darian lay on the exam table covered with a thin blanket. Monitors overhead gauged his vital signs and brain function. It looked as if he were completely fine.

She laid a hand on the side of his cheek and smiled at him. “Welcome back.”

“You’re a sight for sore eyes.” His voice was rough, husky, much as hers had sounded when she’d first awakened.

“How do you feel?” She continued to stroke his face, unable to help herself. He was so beautiful; the line of his jaw, the contour of his neck, the slope of his shoulders. His chest was wonderfully sculpted muscle. She had to pull herself away from him before she explored his body further. Now was not the time or the place.

“I’m tired, but I feel fine.” He smiled weakly, his eyelids drooping. “We need to talk, Nani. I know about the video, though Dr. Zabin refused to let me view it. He said I needed to be prepared before I saw it.”

She hissed in a breath of air, feeling his conflicting emotions. He, like her, didn’t know whom to trust. It seemed like the lives of everyone around them were somehow connected to that fateful day. Samair had touched more lives than simply theirs with his actions.

“I saw only part of it, but I have no wish to see any more. I was told it was a record of everything that happened that day with everyone involved and on what level.”

“It will also prove Samair doesn’t have legal claim over the Vok’nair Empire. That belongs with you and your family.”

“We could have united this entire quadrant if we’d married back then.”

“We still can.” His smile was weak, but he held eye contact with her.

They stared at each other a moment, possibilities glistening all around them. All they had to do was go home and face the monsters who had put them in this situation to begin with.

“You should let him rest now, my lady.” Mahat Zabin’s voice was quiet and unobtrusive, but he still brought so many demons with him Nani felt as if she’d been ripped from a fairy tale into a harsh reality.

“I want you and that madman off my ship. Take the admiral with you.” Nani hissed her order quietly, but judging by the doctor’s expression, her meaning was clear.

“Nani.” Damon walked slowly toward her. “No one will dispute your orders, but I urge you to think about what you’re doing. Think about the people these men have become.”

Darian gripped her hand as he carefully pulled himself to a sitting position. Nani tried to hold him back, but he brushed her away until he stood. He framed her face with his hands and forced her to look at him. “Mahat was but a young, idealistic person back then. He obviously regrets his actions, and he saved us, Nani. Not just us, but look at what he’s done for everyone here.”

She placed her hands on Darian’s wrists and held to him like he was her lifeline. “What he did was unforgivable, Darian. Not just to us, but to Nadira. How much better would her life have been if she hadn’t been given to Samair?”

“And she might never have met Mikiel, either. She’s happy now. Isn’t that what’s most important?” She’d never thought Darian would take this position. The fact that he spoke aloud and not by telepathy told her he was absolutely sure about his feelings. He wanted the others to know why he felt this way, and why he disagreed with her on this.

“I’ve been inside his mind, Nani. While he put me back in my body, he let me have access to everything he was doing. He didn’t give me permission to go poking around inside his head, so I didn’t, but his emotions were so high, I couldn’t help but get a lot of bleed over.”

Then it was clear to Nani what Darian had seen. “You felt his emotions. Not only current ones, but what he felt that day, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I don’t know the whole story, but what he did was not what he thought he’d be doing. He was forced into it the same way we were.”

“I don’t know if I’d put it that kindly, my lord,” Zabin said. Nani looked at him for the first time since he’d shown her to Darian. Tears fell freely from his eyes, and he made no attempt to dry them. “I had a choice, at first. It just wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

“I knew Mahat back then.” Damon spoke again. He looked all of his fifty-two years and then some. He looked tired. Weary beyond imagination, and for the first time, Nani saw Phoebe behind him. She was definitely young enough to be his daughter, but her eyes showed an age and wisdom of someone twice her age. Now, she put her hand into Damon’s and squeezed, offering him her silent support. “He was a few years younger than me, but was a brilliant surgeon.”

“That doesn’t matter, Damon.” Dr. Zabin waved him off. “I was given an offer I couldn’t refuse, even though it violated every ethics oath I’d sworn to uphold as a physician. I shouldn’t have been surprised when it turned out as evil as it did. It was evil to begin with, and I was evil to shrug off everything I stood for simply for the opportunity to combine biology with technology. Samair knew what he was doing when he chose me.”

“He knew of your interest in biotechnology, and he knew you were good enough to make good on your research. He twisted your quest for immortality into the ultimate death sentence.” Damon pleaded with the doctor while Nani listened intently. Something inside her wanted to believe Dr. Zabin wasn’t as willing a participant as she believed him to be at first.

“Tell me exactly what happened, Dr. Zabin,” she said. Darian had sat back on the table but held her hand firmly now. He gave her access to his mind, and she knew he felt stronger. He wanted this story, too. Though he knew the doctor’s emotional state at the time of the original procedure -- one of horror and a disbelief he was actually doing something like that to another human being -- there were still many unanswered questions.

“I was told I’d be testing my theory that a human brain could actually be transplanted into a cyborg machine. I was told I’d be performing the test on criminals sentenced to death for crimes so unspeakable they weren’t made known to the general public. I questioned whether people like that deserved a second chance at life, and I was told even if they survived, once the study was over they’d be terminated anyway. It was better not to use good people for the study phase of the experiment.

“Of course, I recognized Darian right away. I immigrated from the Asalian Coalition after medical school and Darian, being the son of the president, was always in the public eye. Naturally, I refused to do the procedure…” His voice trailed away and, if possible, he looked even more anguished than before.

Darian grunted. Nani felt his distress even as the images flooded her mind, and she cried out. The pain in her chest and stomach was so great, she doubled over. She was going to vomit. She couldn’t hear another second of this. Even as the images of Mahat Zabin’s family being slaughtered one by one played through her mind like a vid image on continuous playback, she ran from the room. That same room she’d seen on the computer screen in her cabin earlier was truly a hall of horrors. She knew Darian followed but she couldn’t wait for him. She ran to her quarters and into the bathroom where she vomited violently.

She severed her link with Darian, but it was too late. She saw a tearful and begging Zabin doing as he was told until both she and Darian were encased in their new “bodies,” only instead of android bodies, they had computer casings. What had happened next she was spared, only to know Zabin had left Vok’nair space as soon as he’d been able. It wasn’t until Nadira had gone aboard the Black Star that he’d returned. He’d gotten himself on board as one of three doctors and quietly waited for an opportunity to right everything he’d done wrong.

A warm body pressed against her back and a cool, damp cloth was held to her forehead while she got her stomach back under control.

“I’m sorry, my love. I wasn’t prepared for it, either. I’d have blocked you if I’d known.” Darian held her hair back from her face with one large hand. She took the cloth from him and blotted her sweating face and neck, spitting out the last remaining nastiness in her mouth. He stood and ordered a glass of water, then handed the cool, synthesized liquid to her. She gulped it down greedily.

“It’s probably on the video, too. How can I show that to the people when I can’t stand to watch it myself?”

Darian thought for a moment. “Perhaps you only need to show it to one person.”

“Samair.”

Darian nodded. “That, combined with Admiral Amos’s support, may be enough for him to voluntarily step aside.”

“We’re talking about a monster, Darian.”

“We’re talking about a man who did horribly nasty things in the name of gaining power when he was fifty years old.”

Nani blinked. “I’d forgotten how much older than me he was. My father hadn’t seemed to think much of it at the time.”

“From what I’ve found out, your father may not have had much of a choice.”

“True. Samair had contacts high in the inner government. Even though my father was king, he still had to answer to the parliament. Once Samair had his sights set on being king, his only choice was to marry me, since, as my father’s only child, I stood to inherit the kingdom.”

“I hate to say this, but he probably knew you and I were seeing each other even after your marriage. You carrying my child would be the perfect excuse to be rid of you.”

Nani wiped her mouth one last time and stood. She looked into his eyes as the last piece of the puzzle clicked into place. “It’s not just that, Darian.” She laid the cloth on the counter and brushed past him into the living area of her quarters. The computer screen still showed her terrified and agonized face where Grimm and Amos had left it. “I’m betting Samair couldn’t father a child by me, or any other woman.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I’m not sure. I only know that he and I never consummated our marriage.”

“Wait. He never had sex with you, and you didn’t think something was wrong?”

“I was twenty at the time, Darian.” She laughed a little, needing the tension break. “The only thing I was concerned about was avoiding him. I knew he only wanted my title. I figured he just didn’t care about sex with me. Even when he had the baby tested to prove parentage, I didn’t say anything. We both knew that child wasn’t his, but I thought if I said so, that would just make things worse.”

“Which it would have,” Darian quickly supplied, pacing the room, obviously thinking. Then he stopped. “So, it was his plan all along to get rid of you. What does that tell us we don’t already know?”

Nani shrugged. “I’m sure he didn’t want the whole kingdom finding out he was sterile, or worse, impotent.”

“And by getting rid of you, he destroyed the one person who could have hinted at either of those things, and he got an heir to the throne with his name. He was assured immortality through his descendants.”

“Could all of this have been about a quest for the throne? It just seems so…” Nani struggled for the right word.

“Trivial?”

“Well, at the very least it was supreme overkill.”

“Who knows what he was thinking?” Darian shrugged. “What matters now is making sure that record of events gets in the right hands to pull Samair from the throne.”

“And I think I just alienated the two people who might have been able to help us.”

“The admiral and Grimm?” When she nodded, Darian waved her off. “They’re still here. Everyone is in Medical, trying to decide how to go about overthrowing Samair and wondering exactly how much a part you want to play in this. It’s your kingdom, after all.”

She smiled. “Well, if they’re working on it, let them. At least for now. At the moment, there’s only one thing I want.”

Darian raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”

“You, Darian. I want you.”